Annual lantern festival brightens South Berwick

SOUTH BERWICK, Maine — Local community members gathered beneath the stars Wednesday night to light up their own piece of the sky with handmade lanterns at SoBo Central's 3rd annual LanternFest.

By Crystal Weyercweyer@fosters.com

SOUTH BERWICK, Maine — Local community members gathered beneath the stars Wednesday night to light up their own piece of the sky with handmade lanterns at SoBo Central's 3rd annual LanternFest.

Initially, the event was thought-up as a simple, lighted lantern walk through town.

“Then we started doing some research on all of the different lantern events across the world. That's why we now have the concert, the parade, and the sky and water lanterns. It's a combination of all these different kinds of lantern celebrations,” said Nicole St. Pierre, SoBo Central's co-chairman.

Festivities began at Spring Hill at 5:30 p.m. with picnicking and barbecuing while kids were let loose to play or could have their faces painted. Others were busy at work learning how to make their very own paper lanterns at the Make A Lantern station. Children and adults filed through a variety of tables with different elements to add to their plastic creations for use later on in the night's lantern parade.

Music filled the air at 6 p.m. with a final Hot Summer Nights concert by local group PB&J as children danced in the grass and hundreds of others gathered on blankets and lawn chairs on the grassy hill.

“In this world where we lead increasingly isolated lives, being inside, on social media, and with work, this is an event that we hope really connects people to the community,” said St. Pierre.

PB&J wrapped up their performance by directing guests to begin forming the line for the lantern parade. As the tangerine moon slowly rose, hundreds of adults and children made their way across the grounds of Spring Hill with glass, plastic, or paper lanterns in hand. All were aglow with their lanterns and glow-in-the-dark sticks, necklaces, and bracelets.

The large white heron that led the parade has become a tradition, as this was its third year doing so.

“We want to inspire our community to be creative without having to spend a lot of money,” said St. Pierre. Many of the lanterns were made with recycled materials or objects. SoBo Central also hopes to offer some lantern making workshops next year.

“We hope to see more and more big lanterns every year,” said St. Pierre.

This year Sharon Trull's family added some big jellyfish lanterns with long paper streamers for tentacles and someone else made a large glow bug. “There are more people participating with lanterns and we had more available to decorate,” said Trull, a volunteer at the event.

Eighty or so volunteers had been working to make the event possible and many were on hand last night dawning signature orange LanternFest t-shirts that identified them as members of the Glow Crew.

As night fell, the lantern parade arrived at Knights Pond where dozens of memory water lanterns floated on the still waters, carrying personal messages to honor loved ones who have passed. Rich Bulger and John Klossner were on hand as the canoe crew to gather the water lanterns at the close of the event.

In a feat of perfect timing, the first flying lantern lifted into the air and began its gentle ascent as the parade arrived at the water. Five groups of two volunteers were organized as the event's Sky Launch Team.

“Once it's ready to go, we let it lift,” said Dave Stansfield, SoBo Central's treasurer. Also part of the Sky Launch Team was Carter Bolduc, 14, who was excited to be involved in launching the sky lanterns.

“We're not supposed to release them if the wind is 5 mph or more,” said Stansfield. “But there is none tonight.”

48 lanterns danced in the dark as they drifted, one after the other, into the distance.

“I really love it,” said Kelsey Stevens, 8, of South Berwick. “I like seeing the lanterns go up into the sky.”

“They look like stars,” said Colin, 7, of Rollinsford.

Roberta Orsini, South Berwick's assistant town manager, believes “It's a fabulous evening for families to enjoy a beautiful location and also a great close to the summer.”

Amy Fullerton of York, attended the event with her children and five other families and simply said, “It was amazing.”

“I think the turnout is larger this year,” said Trull. “And look at the moon, it's beautiful.”

The lantern festival is the signature event of Sobo Central, an umbrella organization of: Keep South Berwick Warm, the South Berwick Community Food Pantry, Hot Summer Nights concerts, GreenUp! South Berwick, Friends of Powderhouse Hill and SmartGrowth South Berwick. Proceeds from the event directly help fund all of these groups.

LanternFest is also a way for these organizations to give back to the community that supports them all year long.

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